what was canada's flag before the maple leaf

Before Canada adopted the red-and-white maple leaf flag in 1965, the country mostly used the Canadian Red Ensign as its de facto national flag.

Quick Scoop

• The Canadian Red Ensign featured:
  • A red field.
  • The Union Jack in the upper left (canton).
  • A shield with the Canadian coat of arms on the fly (right side).

• Officially, Canada still used the Union Jack (the flag of the United Kingdom) as its formal flag for much of this period, especially before World War II.

• The maple leaf flag was officially raised for the first time on 15 February 1965, replacing the Red Ensign on federal buildings.

In everyday life before 1965, if you saw a “Canadian flag,” it was almost certainly the Red Ensign flying with the Union Jack in the corner.

Tiny timeline snapshot

1. Pre-Confederation: British flags, especially the Union Jack, represented the colonies that became Canada.

2. Late 19th–early 20th century: Variants of the Canadian Red Ensign with evolving coats of arms saw more and more use to represent Canada, especially at sea and at international events.

3. 1965: The modern maple leaf flag was adopted and the Red Ensign was lowered from official federal use.

TL;DR:
Canada’s main flag before the maple leaf was the Canadian Red Ensign (red field, Union Jack in the corner, Canadian coat of arms on the right), while the Union Jack remained the formal British flag used in many official contexts until 1965.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.